Dark Duelist
by Vergil Leonidas
Summary: Vergil wanted to take a path different from the one she took, he wanted to surpass her, to defeat her. Thus, leaving most of his old deck behind, he entered the Duel Academy, still, no matter what he did light always ended up chasing after him.


"Talking"

" _Thinking_ "

* * *

 _ **Chapter 1 – Entrance Exam**_

* * *

The sunrise, the moment in which darkness switches places with light, a moment in which opposing forces interact for the first time in a day. Both were necessary, that much was clear; yet knowing that didn't stop people from preferring one over the other.

Vergil was one of those who preferred night, the calm, quiet period. He liked darkness, the way it shifted, seemed to succumb to light only to overthrow it. He figured the constant shifts between two sides were as common in the culture as they were in the very nature. Starting from something as casual as games and sports and going all the way up to the most important events in history. Like chess with white and black pieces, like duel monsters with opposing sides. Knowing the way a clash would end was impossible, for any side could overthrow the other in a single decisive move.

He looked at the letter in his hand, feeling like the time itself had stopped, it was a response… from her.

* * *

Thinking back Vergil loved dueling, he could say that he was fairly decent at it, but he wanted something, and to get that he knew what he needed to do.

He was sitting at the table near the window with another male his age playing duel monsters.

"You have one card on your field and one in your hand while I've got three **Summoned Skulls** on my side of the field. Sorry, but this duel is mine." His opponent and friend said.

"Don't get so cocky, Miles. I'm not about to lose our parting duel." Vergil grinned at the teen. "My turn." He drew a card and took one good look at his friend. The raven haired teen with short messy hair. Currently confident brown eyes clashed with Vergil's relaxed golden eyes. "It is over though."

"And I'm being cocky." Miles pointed out.

"Fair point; but I'm not being cocky for nothing. I activate my trap, **Common Sacrifice** ; with this I can send two of your monsters to the graveyard and special summon a level 7 or higher monster from my hand." Vergil flipped his facedown and the card depicting Reign-Beaux, Overlord of Dark World being summoned via the sacrifice of two of the opposing monsters made Miles sigh, he walked into a trap.

He removed two of his **Summoned Skulls** from the field and Vergil set a golden dragon in attack position.

"Come on out, **Genghis Ghan the Emperor Dragon**." A monster with 2800 ATK points, it was more than enough to turn things around. "Say goodbye to your last **Summoned Skull**." With no cards to defend it the monster was destroyed and the life points changed, the current situation being 1500 LP for Vergil and 4300 for Miles.

"You sure aren't joking around." Miles had to grin as Vergil looked at the sunset through the window. The last moment of sunlight illuminated his pale face, put the emphasis on the lightning shaped scar on the right side of his face and made the golden eyes seem even brighter.

"Nothing stays on top forever." Vergil said and placed his remaining card on the table. "I activate my spell, **Deepest Impact**." He casually removed his dragon from the table and set it into his graveyard as their life points halved. Vergil now had 750, while Miles had 2150. If he ended the turn, if there was nothing left for him to do Miles would most likely win. But the raven haired teen set the cards down.

"When **Genghis Ghan** is destroyed by a card effect, his own effect lets you pick one monster in my graveyard and inflict the damage equal to chosen monster's attack to my life points." Miles knew he lost, he knew Vergil by now; as they played way too many times for him not to.

"And you already know I'm picking the **Summoned Skull** ; you've been overthrown, Miles." Vergil smirked and put his deck back into the deck box.

Miles had to laugh. "You really got me with that. You're travelling, aren't you?"

Vergil looked at the room they were in, being a tenant he didn't have too many things and he never really put much thought into decorating the place he was living in. So now that he packed what little he had the apartment was rather empty. The furniture was covered, with the exceptions being the table with two chairs, bed and the bare necessity of kitchen equipment. It felt a bit empty now that he looked at it. "Pretty much."

"You'll join Xenia, right? You can get better by her side and who knows, in a few years you could even join the Pro League." Miles suggested, they were friends but topic of future wasn't exactly something Vergil liked to talk about.

"No. I'm not going to follow in her footsteps. I'm going to the Duel Academy." Vergil replied and stood up to turn the lights on.

"Quit joking around." Miles was looking at him like he had two extra heads.

"I've made up my mind. I already passed the written exam and ended up being number 115." Vergil said. He smirked. "I'm going to surpass her doing things my own way." He declared.

* * *

That's what happened two days ago and now he had a letter in his hand. He had to smile, it was short, but there was no need for it to be any longer.

'Feel free to try.'

Her response to his 'I will surpass you.'

Vergil took out the card she sent with the letter. His Dark Horus, she gave it back to him despite the fact that he sent her the deck he used just two days ago against Miles. He already had a new deck set for his time at Academy, but now, looking at the black phoenix he couldn't help but feel like he couldn't make a deck without it.

"Welcome back." He muttered to the card and set it on top of his new deck.

"Vergil, are you ready?" A voice from the corridor broke him out of his thoughts.

Vergil put a dark blue jacket on and took his deck, stepping out he saw that his friend was way too excited.

"It looks like you're the one taking the exam." Vergil pointed out.

"Come on, I want to see you beating any opponent they throw at you."

"You're in for a surprise then." Vergil had to smirk, Miles was yet to find out about his new deck. He took in the corridor, the plain white walls he passed by on numerous occasions. It's been a year since he began living here so now he felt somewhat homesick knowing that he'll leave soon.

* * *

Vergil leaned against the wall once he and Miles entered the arena, the place was rather big, four duel arenas with stands all around them. Considering the number of people occupying the seats there were too many of them. Looking around he also noticed that some students simply chose to stand by the railing like Miles was doing right now.

Speaking of Miles, the teen was overflowing with excitement, looking from one duel to the next one, not really caring about anything else.

"You should have applied." Vergil commented.

"You know I like watching, I'm a spectator, a casual player." Miles replied. "I like all of this but I don't want to make living out of dueling."

"Suit yourself." The white haired teen didn't feel like pushing his friend any further. Still, as he watched the way Miles beamed with excitement he felt like he was making a mistake. Like he should have tried harder to persuade him.

Knowing there was no going back Vergil turned his attention to the duels. The holograms clashed, the sounds echoed through the arena. Monsters ranging from armored warriors to dragons and other monstrosities occupied the fields. Anyone could find something they liked and create a deck accordingly. He was a bit puzzled at the fact that duels weren't played with 8000 life points per player, but he figured it would be time consuming given the circumstances.

"Examinee Number 115: Vergil Leonidas, report to the field 3." The call echoed.

Wordlessly he began walking down the stairs to the free arena. He raised his hand and gave Miles thumbs up when he reached the bottom of the stairs.

Miles knew exactly what it meant. 'Watch me overthrow them.' That's how Vergil was. And apparently he got a bit distracted sending the message as a small boy bumped into him. Seeing that, Miles had to raise an eyebrow.

* * *

"S-Sorry, I wasn't looking." The boy apologized and Vergil noticed that he was rather short, his three-layered light blue hair was kind of making his head resemble a triangle, or a pyramid.

"I should have paid more attention as well. Don't worry about it." Vergil assured him. "I'm off; I've got a duel to win." Vergil grinned and left the boy, they merely bumped into one another, there was no harm done so there wasn't any reason to dwell on it.

* * *

"That guy sure is confident…" Blue haired boy muttered to himself as he reached the top of the stairs.

"That's Vergil." Miles grinned. "Wanna watch with me, it'll be a blast."

"Um, sure. My name's Syrus by the way." Syrus introduced himself.

"Miles. And that one is Vergil." Miles pointed at Vergil who had just walked into the arena.

* * *

Whatever Vergil's examiner expected it certainly wasn't what he got. A white haired teen with a scar on his face and piercing golden eyes.

Vergil's examiner was a tall male in blue duel coat quite similar to those worn by some of the people watching, he had black sunglasses despite being inside and not exposed to the Sun. Which honestly kind of irritated Vergil as it was downright unnecessary. The man had black hair and a bit of a beard.

"Vergil Leonidas, correct?" Examiner asked. "My name is Wade." He introduced himself.

"Nice to meet you." It was mostly said out of courtesy as Vergil put his deck into the duel disk. "Shall we start?"

"Let's see what you've got." Wade challenged him.

"Duel!" They both exclaimed.

 **Turn 1: Vergil: 4000 – Wade: 4000**

"Let's get this started." Vergil drew a card to signal the start of the duel. He looked at his hand and made a brief plan of action. "I summon **Archfiend Soldier (1900/1500)** in attack position."

A demonic warrior with a green cape and a sword somewhat similar to a cutlass stood in front of Vergil.

"I'll set one card facedown and end my turn." Vergil smirked knowing Miles already knew he changed his deck.

"Not a bad start." Wade complimented him.

* * *

"T-That utter idiot." Miles hissed. "He's using a different deck."

"Why?" Syrus asked thinking that doing what Vergil did was ridiculous.

"To hell if I know. But seriously Vergil? Of all the things you could do you decided to use a brand new deck on your exam?" He knew Vergil couldn't hear him, but he had to express his thoughts out loud.

* * *

At the opposite side of stands a white haired female observed Vergil's duel. She had nothing to do with the exams, she merely came here to watch him duel. Her golden eyes were fixated on the male as she held his previous deck.

* * *

 **Turn 2: Vergil: 4000 – Wade: 4000**

"I draw." Vergil observed as his examiner drew a card.

Wade seemed confident, everything about his body language said so, but his actions failed to prove it to be true.

"I set one monster facedown and end my turn." A facedown monster hologram was far from capable of impressing, let alone worrying Vergil. Still, that was probably not what Vergil expected. He did know that there weren't many level 4 or lower monsters that could match **Archfiend Soldier** in the terms of attacking power. So a facedown monster? Yes. A lack of some trap or anything similar? No,

 **Turn 3: Vergil: 4000 – Wade: 4000**

"My turn." He barely drew a card and looked at it before he went for an attack. " **Archfiend Soldier** , attack his facedown monster."

The fiend jumped up with his sword high above him. The cape fluttered in the air as he slammed the blade down on the ground and in the process cut the defensive monster in half.

The monster that was placed facedown was **Alien Grey** (300/800), a slim, nearly skeletal, small creature with long fingers.

"My monster's effect activates when it's flipped. An A-Counter is placed on your monster and once destroyed by battle I can draw a card." Wade explained and drew a card from his deck.

"That A-Counter won't do much though." Vergil grinned. "I tribute **Archfiend Soldier** to summon **Strong Wind Dragon (2400/1000)**."

Powerful looking blue dragon flapped its wings and let out a roar as it descended on the field right where the **Archfiend Soldier** was.

"And with that my turn ends." Vergil stated.

 **Turn 4: Vergil: 4000 – Wade: 4000**

"I draw." Wade drew a card and decided it was time to get a bit more serious. "I activate spell card **Brain Control**." Vergil remained calm despite the effects of said card. "I pay 800 life points to take you **Strong Wind Dragon** and put it under my control."

His dragon roared in pain and clutched its head as it briefly tried to fight off the effect. But it was too powerful for the dragon to overcome it.

" _And you are going to tribute it to get rid of it._ " Vergil figured as he watched his dragon being pulled to the other side of the field.

"When I use my opponent's monster as a tribute I can summon **Cosmic Horror Gangi'el** with only one sacrifice." Wade said as the said gigantic monster, truly fitting the 'Cosmic Horror' description appeared in all its glory with 2600 attack points and 2000 defense points. It had a bunch of tentacles armed with something similar to bent nose pliers which added to the appearance.

 **Gangi'el** was also a fairly rare card and its appearance on the field did get some attention from the nearby observers other than Miles, Syrus and the white haired female.

* * *

"Come on, Vergil. Tell me you've got some plan…" Miles gripped the railing as tightly as he could. If Vergil was using his original deck Miles was sure he could easily deal with this; but now, with this new deck… he couldn't be sure.

* * *

" **Gangi'el** , attack him directly." Wade pointed at Vergil. As soon as the order reached it the monster's pliers shot right toward Vergil.

The sound of impact and an explosion filled the entire arena, someone just got defeated and it seemed to be a signal to Vergil's potential defeat as well. Yet Vergil was still smirking

"I ain't allowing that. Trap activate, **Snare**!" Vergil's trap activated and **Gangi'el** halted its attack, looking petrified and unwilling to engage in battle. "Your monster won't be able to attack or switch position for three turns. Not that it will stay on the field for that long."

"Big words, let's see if you can live up to them. I end my turn." Wade said.

* * *

Miles let out a sigh of relief. "Quit giving me heart attacks." He muttered.

"That was really close." Syrus commented.

"Tell me about it, another one like that and he might even lose." Miles said and then shook his head. "On the other hand, it's Vergil, he won't lose this."

* * *

 **Turn 5: Vergil: 4000 – Wade: 3200**

"It's my turn." He really had to figure something out to follow up on those words, to pull out a monster with over 2600 attack points, well he had a few ways to do it, he just needed a right card. Or two… "I'll start with **Pot of Greed** and draw additional two cards."

He was confident but his hand still lingered in the air, hiding the cards from his sight, he took a deep breath and looked at the cards.

A smirk on his face indirectly informed Wade that he planned on turning his words into actions.

"First of all I'll special summon **Dark Grepher (1700/1600)** by sending a level 5 or higher DARK monster from my hand to the graveyard." As Vergil said that the warrior emerged.

* * *

The white haired female had to chuckle at the sight of the monster. "A demonic white haired warrior with red eyes? Really Verge?" She whispered, slightly shook her head in disbelief but kept smiling nonetheless. "Show me what you are trying to pull off."

* * *

"That won't be enough." Wade informed him.

"It will be in a few seconds. I summon **The Dragon Dwelling in the Cave (1300/2000)**." A large, old green dragon lied on the field right next to **Dark Grepher**. "Furthermore, I'm activating a spell card, **Gift of the Martyr**. Now, by sacrificing my dragon I can add its attack points to **Dark Grepher**." Vergil smirked as he once again got the upper hand.

Dragon roared and disappeared, its power transferring into the warrior. Dark Grepher let out a battle cry as he felt his power rising up.

 **(Dark Grepher 1700/1600 – 3000/1600)**

"3000 attack points?!" Wade gasped.

"Alright! Get him Vergil!" Vergil faintly heard Miles' cheers.

"You're being too loud." Vergil sighed but turned his attention back to the duel. " **Grepher** destroy his **Gangi'el**."

 **Grepher** charged forward and sliced at the alien from the side. The hologram shattered upon the sword slicing it in half. Finishing the task given to him, **Grepher** jumped back to Vergil's side of the field. "I'll set one card facedown and end my turn. Told you I'd take it down." Vergil was grinning confidently.

 **(Dark Grepher 3000/1600 – 1700/1600)**

 **Turn 6: Vergil: 4000 – Wade: 2800**

"You certainly did, I'm impressed." Wade once again complimented him.

"Thanks." Vergil nodded slightly, accepting the praise.

Wade looked at his hand as sounds of monsters being summoned, the sounds of short clashes and the shouts of both examiners and the ones being put to test dueling for the place at Academy surrounded him.

"I summon **Alien Kid (1600/700)** in attack position." An extraterrestrial child with a small gun certainly didn't seem like much of a threat, especially as it jumped up and down a bit like a child. Wade proceeded to activate a spell from his hand. " **Burden of the Mighty** , with this all your monsters will lose 100 attack points multiplied by their level." Wade explained as a card with the nest with just hatched blue chicks with a hand above them activated next to him.

 **(Dark Grepher 1700/1600 – 1300/1600)**

 **Dark Grepher** slumped a bit at the sudden decrease in strength.

"Furthermore due to **Alien Kid's** effect I can put an A-Counter on every special summoned monster you control." Wade added, which would mean that if **Dark Grepher** was to fight an 'Alien' monster it would lose additional 300 points.

" **Alien Kid** , destroy his monster." Kid pointed the gun at **Grepher** and fired a shot.

"I activate a quick-play spell, **Command Silencer**." Totem emerged in front of **Dark Grepher** and absorbed the blast. "It also lets me draw a card from my deck." Vergil drew the card and looked at Wade.

"I end my turn." The examiner stated.

 **Turn 7: Vergil: 4000 – Wade: 2800**

"It's my turn." Vergil drew a card making the total count in his hand three. "I'll start by activating **Monster Reborn** in order to bring back **Odd-Eyes Dragon (2500/2000)** from my graveyard." A light shone from his graveyard as the card returned and he put it on his duel disk.

A dragon that looked more like a purple chicken with red armor pieces and a few white spikes emerged on the field.

"You didn't have it in your graveyard." Wade tried to argue.

" **Dark Grepher** here was special summoned by me discarding one level five or higher DARK monster, **Odd-Eyes** is a level seven DARK monster." Vergil pointed out.

The dragon still succumbed to the effects of Wade's spell and it too looked a bit tired.

 **(Odd-Eyes Dragon 2500/2000 – 1800/2000)**

* * *

"He won, there's nothing that examiner can do now!" Syrus cheered on the stands.

"It's not over yet, he can't win in this turn." Miles realized, but knowing Vergil, he might just pull it off.

* * *

"You know, I am quite annoyed by that spell card of yours, so I think I'll destroy it. Go, **Twin Twister**. With this card I discard one card from my hand so I can destroy up to two spells or traps on the field." Vergil explained, discarded **Polymerization** and activated his card. "And I'm destroying your **Burden of the Mighty**."

Wade's spell card shattered as Vergil's monsters regained their original strength.

 **(Dark Grepher 1300/1600 – 1700/1600) (Odd-Eyes Dragon 1800/2000 – 2500/2000)**

It was over, everyone watching knew it. But not everyone knew it would be over in this very round because of the monster Vergil just summoned.

" **Odd-Eyes** , take down the **Alien Kid**." Vergil pointed at the alien. **Odd-Eyes** began charging up a blast in its mouth and fired it, thus obliterating the weaker monster. "When **Odd-Eyes** destroys a monster and sends it to the graveyard you take half of its attack points as damage."

The blast engulfed Wade making him cry out at the sudden strike.

" **Dark Grepher** , end this duel." The slice of sword right to the duel disk ended everything, with 900 points of damage due to the attack, another 800 through special effect and additional 1700 right now it was 3400. More than enough to end the duel.

 **Vergil: 4000 – Wade: 0000 (Winner: Vergil)**

"You are overthrown." Vergil smirked as the holograms in front of him disappeared.

"Congratulations, it was a fine duel." Wade gave him one final compliment.

* * *

"He won!" Miles exclaimed and high-fived Syrus.

* * *

Vergil looked around and saw her, the white haired female that came to watch him. " _Xenia…_ " His eyes widened as she turned around. " _Just you wait, I will surpass you_." He made a promise to himself.

* * *

Xenia wanted to get out unnoticed, but it wasn't that easy, as she approached the corridor she was spotted by a long-haired dirty blond female.

" _What is a Pro duelist doing here?_ " The female had to wonder, last name of the candidate that just finished his duel flashed in her mind. 'Leonidas'; like the woman that just left. The resemblance between the two was striking. It made Alexis Rhodes sure that the two were related in some way.

* * *

Vergil walked up to Miles and smirked. "A good test run for a new deck, don't you think?"

"Reckless idiot." Miles let the annoyance slip into his voice as he glared at Vergil. "This is Syrus by the way." He pointed at Syrus.

"Nice to meet you." This time it wasn't out of courtesy as he offered his hand to the shorter teen. "I'm Vergil."

Syrus seemed a bit like a nervous wreck as he shook Vergil's hand. "Likewise. You had some really good moves."

"Thanks." Vergil seemed ready to keep the conversation going but an arm wrapped itself around his neck and pulled him.

"Come on, I want to see that deck of yours!" Miles began pulling him to the hallway.

Syrus sweat dropped, not that he was the only one, everyone who saw the scene, and there were quite a few, looked either amused or a bit freaked out.

"You're choking me…!" Vergil breathed out as he freed himself from Miles' grasp. "I can walk on my own, geez… Don't you want to see other duels?"

"Nope, I wanna see your new deck." Yet, as they kept walking Vergil noticed regret in his friend, regret over not attempting to join the Academy.

* * *

Days passed and Miles didn't show up ever since he and Vergil went over Vergil's new deck, now, only a few minutes before getting onto the plane Vergil took one final look. A part of him didn't want to leave without a 'Goodbye', but it seemed like that's what would happen.

"People come and go." He muttered into his chin, it's just that he'd prefer knowing if he did something wrong. The airport was crowded, he saw a few familiar faces, the ones that he remembered seeing at the exam.

Vergil sighed, this was it, with this he was a step closer to surpassing Xenia; he was going to improve in an Academy. In the place Xenia deemed as unnecessary to the progress, he was going to defeat her and overthrow her.

* * *

Miles wasn't that far from the airport, in fact he had been sitting in the park near it for over an hour now. As the plane heading for the Duel Academy island took flight he watched it. Feeling even more regret for not trying to join.

A part of him even felt somewhat jealous, Vergil never seemed to want to pull him along, he would help, but he would never let Miles depend on him completely.

"You feel inferior to him, Leonidas." It was a statement, one that made Miles look to the side with wide eyes.

"Who are you?" The man on his side had a long black coat and was hiding his face.

"Someone you can depend on. Take this deck and follow me." The man said and offered Miles a deck box. "With this you can defeat Leonidas and many more, all you need to do is follow me."

Vergil was no longer there, he chose to go to the Duel Academy, to leave him behind. It didn't take much thinking, Miles took the deck.

"Good."

* * *

 _ **And that's it. I've been taught a valuable lesson when the first version of this chapter got published yesterday so I put pretty much all day into fixing the mistakes I made, naturally there isn't a way for me to completely take in and properly use all the advises I got, however I hope I will be able to do so as the time passes.**_

 _ **I encourage anyone willing to give constructive criticism to do so, I want to improve and make my writing enjoyable for those who read it.**_

* * *

 _ **Next Chapter – Duel Academy**_


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